World Briefs

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Dead man walking


Terrified of waking up in a coffin six feet under? Never fear: Vitaly Malyukov has invented a device that can pull you out of your grave if you've been accidentally buried alive. The Russian researcher installed an "alert device" in the interior of a casket, complete with a red light designed to make the alarm signal clearly visible to the occupant. Pressing the alarm button triggers a siren in the office of the cemetery caretaker. The system indicates precisely which tomb is showing a sign of life...as long as the caretaker isn't on a coffee break!

- Pravda, Moscow


Taking extreme measures of protection

An anti-rape tampon was just put on the market in South Africa. The "Rapex" resembles a hollow feminine hygiene product, except that it is made with tiny hooks that attach themselves to any foreign object. The device can only be removed from the foreign object with surgical intervention. "We must do something to protect ourselves. This will not keep rape away, but it will enable us to sanction the aggressors," said Sonette Ehlers, the inventor of Rapex. She conceived the product in collaboration with gynecologists, engineers and urologists. About 52,000 rapes occur every year in South Africa.
- The Star, Johannesburg

What's an elephant without its tusks?


In China, more and more male elephants are born without tusks. A recent study indicates that poaching may be responsible for a modification in their gene pool. Zhang Li, a teacher of zoology at a university in Peking, discovered that the gene responsible for the absence of tusks is spreading among elephants living in the province of Yunnan, in the South-West of the country. "The diminishing number of elephants with tusks reflects the impact of poaching. The longer their tusks are, the more they risk being slaughtered by poachers," said Zhang. "Those without tusks have a larger chance of survival, whence the propagation of the gene with missing tusks in the species." Zhang said that it is not a question of natural evolution, but rather "a change induced by the force of arms." The international trading of ivory was declared illegal in 1989, by virtue of the convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. About 160 countries, including China, ratified this text, which forbids the trade of endangered species and the products that can be extracted from them.
- China Daily, Peking